GOP Convention speech billed as new beginning for runner-up Ted Cruz

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - We at FOX 26 News first became acquainted with Ted Cruz in 2012 when he was a relatively-unknown Houston lawyer launching a long shot campaign for U.S. Senate. He was as dead serious then as now.

"As the scriptures tell us, you shall know them by their fruits," said Cruz in an April 2012 interview. It's a message Cruz has kept on absolute missile lock in the 60 months since, which have seen a meteoric rise to the center of the national stage, on a journey that stalled one notch short of a nominee's shot of leading the free world.

At the GOP Convention on Wednesday night in a primetime consolation prize, the Republican presidential runner-up Cruz will get an opportunity with real value.

"This speech has very little to do with Donald Trump and it has everything to do with Ted Cruz and his political future," said Mark Jones, a political analyst at Rice University.

"He is the future of the Republican party, which is what he is trying to project and get that mantle back and so it's everything to him," said Jay Aiyer, a political analyst at Texas Southern University.

It is a chance to re-articulate a pro-gun, pro-life, pro-liberty agenda while projecting a hard line on multi-fold threats to national security.

What Ted Cruz will not do is fully embrace the New York billionaire who beat him with the most caustic and unconventional campaign in recent American history.

"He doesn't want to tie himself too closely to the 'Trump train' less he be tainted by any disastrous performance Trump has between now and November," said Jones.

"This is a launch point for a potential 2020 campaign for him," added Aiyer.